The First Five Quotes

“Do you ever get the feeling that when you show someone your affection for them, you are assaulting them? Like you should probably leave them alone? Your affection, no matter how sincere, does not necessarily mean a damn thing to the person you are giving it to. Love can corner you. When you intrude on someone with your affection, you might find yourself trying to knock a strong door down with your shoulder. Either you break the door or you break yourself. Something almost always gets broken. In my mind it runs like this:
I’m going to like you, whether you like it or not. I’ll wear you down until you relent and swallow this big lie I have for you. Don’t move. Don’t live. I love you.”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five

“They left like you knew they would. They went away and you fell like a stone. All the way to the bottom of your room. I see you, yes I see you. Sitting in your chair, hating every minute of it. Falling like a stone without even moving. It hurt you to know that you were right about all the shit you wanted to be wrong about. They always leave you. You put yourself in the right place to get left.”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five

“I was at this guy's house. I met this girl who was hanging out there. She was real pretty, she had brown eyes and dark hair. She was soft-spoken and real nice. I know that everyone has their own life and they can do what they want and you shouldn't think anything of it or anything. But man, I couldn't help but flinch a little when I saw all those needle marks in her arm, they looked so sore. Hateful little holes. I wanted to say something, but I didn't.”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five

“She can break your fall Or let you fall and break And every time you jump You just know she’s going to catch you”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“It hurts to let go. Sometimes it seems the harder you try to hold onto something or someone the more it wants to get away. You feel like some kind of criminal for having felt, for having wanted. For having wanted to be wanted. It confuses you, because you think that your feelings were wrong and it makes you feel so small because it’s so hard to keep it inside when you let it out and it doesn’t come back. You’re left so alone that you can’t explain. Damn, there’s nothing like that is there? I’ve been there and you have too. You’re nodding you head.”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“We try to understand the pain of others but we can only understand it our way.”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“My love runs deeper than the wounds I inflict upon myself, deeper than the sweat that pours from my body. My love runs deeper than the tears that roll down my face. My hate runs deeper than the wounds I inflict upon myself, deeper than the sweat that pours from my body. My hate runs deeper than the tears that roll down my face.”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“I think that I’m running from something I heard on the radio That everybody’s working for the weekend When does the weekend start? What comes at the end of the week? The end? Picture a tired dog chasing its tail”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“A bum stood at the Lucky Market right in front of Artesia & Blossom. He was begging for money. He looked pretty pathetic, dressed in rancid, oily clothes. He smelled like cigarettes and urine. “Can you spare a dime?” he would ask. People would shake their heads or walk around him. He was getting nowhere. Two hours went by, no money, not a cent. “Please, a dime!” cried the bum. A middle-aged man walked by him, heard his plea and laid upon him a mint new dime. “Thank you, sir! Thank you!” shouted the bum. Dime in hand, the bum limped over to a phone booth and called in the airstrike.”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“They left you like you knew they would. They went away and you fell like a stone. All the way to the bottom of your room. I see you, yes I see you. Sitting in your chair, hating every minute of it. Falling like a stone without even moving. It hurt you to know that you were right about all the shit you wanted to be wrong about. They always leave you. You put yourself in the right place to get left.”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“Don’t take candy from strangers unless you’re willing to take a ride in the car.”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“It hurt to pull out the slivers but I knew that I couldn’t bleed anymore, I had lost too much blood already. Now I remain, scarred and regaining strength.”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“I don’t ask for much. I should ask for a lot, then maybe I might get some.”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“I’m twenty-three and I sound like I’m fifty-five.”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“She left an empty house in my heart. The lights don’t work anymore, the heater’s broken.”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“Open your eyes. Your tears cut a trail. Your scars build a ladder that takes you to a place that you could not have gotten to any other way. Take a look around, remember every second, every breath, every choked scream. Scar tissue is stronger than regular tissue. Realize the strength. Move on.”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“You used to frustrate me with your shallow embrace
Now you don’t make me feel anything”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“So easy to not say what you think
To not do what you want
Hard to take rejection
Easy to hurt someone else and not know it
Easy to make it hard”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“Jangles my nerves like a tambourine of razors.”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“Sometimes I feel like going down to the recycling plant. Turning myself in, jumping into the inferno, getting melted down, coming out again as someone else. Scrap metal man.”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“All bullshit and no death and mutilated assholes makes Jack a dull boy, dull and tense.”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“I need to know what you think of me so I can form an opinion about myself.”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“Yesterday wants to pull me in, pull me down and starve me.”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“Soldier from Space. Soldier of a different kind. Soldier of a different mind, from the dark and into light, then back again.”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“There are nights where I cannot sleep
They happen all the time
In these periods, I don’t want to exist
Wouldn’t it be nice to be no one right now?
When I’m lying there, I always think of two things
Sex and suicide
Wouldn’t it be nice to be no one right now?
Sometimes I lie there and hope that I’ll die right then”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“They smile
They will hurt you
Turn inside
Your only friend is inside
They will cut your heart”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“I have come to the idea of rising below and letting the circle run its course. I will no longer fight the wheel inside me. Now I understand the strength of succumbing to the storm, joining the maelstrom, finding power in its turmoil.”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“How lame it is for me to sit in some cushy living room watching Apocalypse Now, on videocassette no less. You think you have pain? That guy went up the river to kill a guy. I’m sitting in a suburban living room on a plush carpet with Search and Destroy tattooed on my back and I’m watching the real thing, it makes touring seem rather easy in comparison. I”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“Keep me preoccupied
Keep me busy, busy, busy
So I won’t have to think
I don’t want to think
Because it only brings me pain
I keep running away from my problems
Keep me busy
Give me a million things to do
So I can keep running away”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"

“I’m sorry for not being sorry that I’m not sorry”
― Henry Rollins, The First Five: "High Adventure in the Great Outdoors", "Pissing in the Gene Pool", "Art to Choke Hearts", "Bang!", "One from None"